/img no longer returns any results

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When using the /img cmd no results are currently returned. Seem's like the old API used by the sassy code is no longer available:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/images

A quick usage (http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/images/?v=1.0&q=) returns:

{"responseData": null, "responseDetails": "This API is no longer available.", "responseStatus": 403}

I believe the API that should be used is now: https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/

Would it be possible to update this?

[Chelsea Ashe]

/anim is also not returning any results. ):

[dave]

Agreed. I'm getting the same results. Can we fix this?

[Graeme Hefner]

My team can't work with the Sass.

[Robert Bergman]

I'll look into this as soon as possible, but I'm not sure what the right solution will look like just yet. Thanks for reporting this.

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without /img and /anim morale in teams is at an all time low.. just sayin... :-)

[Joshua Petry]

Can we change this to a blocker status?

[vivanshah]

This is absolutely a blocker.

[Jose Pacheco]

Sad face :'(

[Mark]

Definitely a blocker. /anim has been broken for quite awhile too.

Is the problem that all the search engines are charging money now? Are there no freebies for open-source projects?

[Joshua Petry]

Thanks, @majiccode. Our business operations are at a total halt because of this.

[Gabriel Cebrian]

The Google Image API has been removed after more than 5 years of being deprecated. I know this because the product I created (https://www.tes.com/lessons) heavily depended on it :(

See the response at http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/images?v=1.0&safe=on&q=ocean

[Robert Bergman]

Yeah, major bummer, but not surprising after 5 years, I guess. There are lot of other search apis out there, but most are not free. I need to do some evaluation to see if there's anything usable for free at rates Sassy consumes that also produce good results. I expect it could take a few weeks to find the time to go through that process. If anyone has experience with image search APIs, please let me know what you like.

[Joshua Petry]

Imgur has a nice, easy-to-use API. I've used it extremely briefly and didn't really dig too much into it, however. I did have some trouble pulling up specifically animated gifs from it - but I didn't really look much further into why.

[A]

Something else to consider - allow/force users to use their own developer key to access the Google custom search API. This would spread the load away from Sassy and have the added benefit of familiarizing users with the new Google search API!

[Robert Bergman]

Certainly anyone can run their own copy of sassy on heroku with their own custom search key. I don't really want to get into the business of storing other people's api credentials on a common of Sassy though, since those keys can be linked to paid accounts.

[Robert Bergman]

I like the look of Imgur, but they have specific non-commercial terms for the free level that concern me. We are investigating some paid options as well, now.

[Robert Bergman]

Ok, we have a plan to get image search back online asap. It could be a few days yet depending on a few factors, but the ball is rolling.

[Chelsea Ashe]

That's great news! (: We're excited that Sassy may soon be back up to her good ol' sassy self.

[Robert Bergman]

Sassy is serving images again, via Google Custom Search. Please let us know how it goes for you.

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Great work, many thanks :)

[vivanshah]

Hooray, thanks!

Any explanation for why the new results don't line up at all with google image search?

[Tuck Tyrrell]

Any updates on this issue? The same problem has come up again for me and my team. Thanks.

[Robert Bergman]

Apparently we had an issue with billing; it should be returning results again now.

As for the issue of search result quality, I'm unclear why the results are less effective than they used to be -- you'd think with a paid plan the results would be better (shrug). If anyone wants to look at the Google Custom Search API docs and compare with what Sassy sends to see if we can tune up the results, please open a new issue with your findings.

I think Sassy also needs to start ignoring pixabay.com images since those are entirely useless.